Police fear 'violent confrontation' with Texas jail escapees after sighting
David Tull, Irving Police Department spokesman, shows new sketches of the seven convicts on Friday
January 5, 2001
Web posted at: 12:05 p.m. EST (1705 GMT)
SAN MARCOS, Texas (CNN) -- Police in San Marcos, Texas, are preparing for the worst Friday after two of seven escaped convicts -- suspected in the killing of a police officer -- were spotted at a bank.
Authorities expect a "violent confrontation" sometime during the manhunt and plan to send "multiple officers" to the scenes of any reported sightings, San Marcos Police Cmdr. Bill Glasgow told CNN.
Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, spoke to CNN by telephone on Friday "We're very concerned about the safety of our officers," Glasgow said. The wanted men were spotted Thursday at a Bank of America branch in San Marcos, a town in South Texas, northeast of San Antonio off Interstate 35.
Asked if the escapees -- who are accused of killing an Irving, Texas, police officer -- were headed for Mexico, Glasgow said it appears the seven aren't intent on leaving Texas but no one could be certain.
Police: Gang may not leave Texas
"I don't have any idea what these guys are doing. None of us really do. It's pretty clear it doesn't look like they are leaving the state," said Glasgow, noting that they escaped in South Texas, went north to the Dallas area and now appeared to be back in the south. "I don't have any explanation why they are going the way they are."
All seven convicts -- two killers, two armed robbers, a child abuser, a serial rapist and a burglar -- are being sought on capital murder charges for the police officer's slaying.
Glasgow said he doubted the escapees still resemble their mug shots, which were distributed widely after their escape on December 13 from the John B. Connally Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Kenedy, Texas. Most likely, Glasgow said, they now have longer hair, beards or mustaches.
At an Irving, Texas, news conference Friday morning, Irving police spokesman David Tull released a set of police drawings aimed at illustrating any changes in the convicts' weight or hairstyle since their escape.
In the three weeks since they broke out of prison with a cache of weapons and left a note warning, "You haven't heard the last of us yet," the convicts are suspected of pulling off at least two robberies and killing a police officer.
Tull said there was a possibility that two of the escapees had been injured during the robbery of a sporting goods store on December 24.
At that robbery, Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins was shot to death. Tull said that blood samples found near the scene of the crime indicated that two people, in addition to Hawkins, had suffered gunshot injuries during the robbery. Officials said the gang has amassed an arsenal of more than 40 weapons stolen during the prison break and at the robbery.
An autopsy report released Wednesday showed Hawkins suffered 11 gunshot wounds and was run over by a vehicle after he responded to the sporting goods store robbery.
George Rivas and Michael Rodriguez were identified as prison escapees by witnesses at a Bank of America in San Marcos, Texas
Suspects spotted at bank
San Marcos Police Chief Steve Griffith said Thursday that George Rivas and Michael Rodriguez were the two escapees identified at the bank.
Police were called to the bank Thursday afternoon after a clerk reported a man who wanted to open a new account was acting odd, the chief said. The clerk told officers the man made bank employees nervous, so the clerk called authorities.
Griffith said he showed witnesses some additional photographs of the escapees and was "able to confirm that two of the individuals ... two of the escapees were at (the) bank."
The pictures were shown to a bank teller and another witness, who positively identified them as escaped prisoners.
A witness outside the bank saw seven or eight people standing around three cars in the parking lot and said the man inside the bank was with these people. They all got into the three cars and headed out of the downtown area toward Interstate 35, the statement said.
That highway, when taken south, leads to San Antonio, Texas, and goes to Dallas-Fort Worth if taken north.
Lt. Ben Valdez, right, with the Texas Department of Public Safety, looks over reports with a colleague in Garland, Texas, on Thursday
Manhunt spreads across Southwest
Prison officials said the search has spread across the Southwest, but is concentrated in the Dallas area. Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said all seven are still believed to be together.
Todd said they apparently have not tried to contact any close friends or relatives, but he added: "Someone is obviously helping them. They have the money and assistance to stay hidden."
That the seven appeared to be running as a gang and instead of splitting up has led to suspicions they may be planning a showdown. "It leads everyone to think these guys have a plan," said FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey.
Federal charges
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in San Antonio charged the men with weapons violations Wednesday, signaling a broadening federal role in the three-week-old manhunt, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
FBI agents in the Dallas area planned to file separate federal charges of unlawful flight from federal prosecution. The unlawful-flight charges would "make it a nationwide manhunt rather than a state and local manhunt," Bailey said.
Posters of the seven escaped convicts are handed out Tuesday in Irving, Texas
Authorities issued a special phone number for tips regarding the escapees: 1-800-252-TIPS (8477). A tipster call to police in Canon City, Colorado, on Thursday has not been confirmed by police. The caller said the escapees were in a red Ford panel van.
The convicts involved in the prison escape were identified as:
? Joseph Garcia, 29, who was serving 50 years for murder in San Antonio.
? Randy Halprin, 23, who was serving 30 years for child abuse in Fort Worth.
? Larry Harper, 37, who was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault after raping three women in 1993 and 1994 in El Paso.
? Patrick Murphy, Jr., 39, who was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon and burglary in Dallas.
? Donald Newbury, 38, who was serving 99 years for aggravated robbery at an Austin hotel in 1997.
? Rivas, 30, who was serving 99 years for aggravated kidnapping and burglary in El Paso. In 1993 he robbed an Oshman's in El Paso and was arrested while robbing a Toys "R" Us store in the same city, said El Paso police.
? Rodriguez, 38, who was serving a life prison term for capital murder in San Antonio after being convicted of paying another man $2,000 to kill his wife so that he could collect $150,000 in life insurance.
**Jerks like these make me want to put them in jail and throw away the key!!! They killed a cop on Christmas Eve
My heart goes out to those cops, their families, as well as to the cop who died.
David Tull, Irving Police Department spokesman, shows new sketches of the seven convicts on Friday
January 5, 2001
Web posted at: 12:05 p.m. EST (1705 GMT)
SAN MARCOS, Texas (CNN) -- Police in San Marcos, Texas, are preparing for the worst Friday after two of seven escaped convicts -- suspected in the killing of a police officer -- were spotted at a bank.
Authorities expect a "violent confrontation" sometime during the manhunt and plan to send "multiple officers" to the scenes of any reported sightings, San Marcos Police Cmdr. Bill Glasgow told CNN.
Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, spoke to CNN by telephone on Friday "We're very concerned about the safety of our officers," Glasgow said. The wanted men were spotted Thursday at a Bank of America branch in San Marcos, a town in South Texas, northeast of San Antonio off Interstate 35.
Asked if the escapees -- who are accused of killing an Irving, Texas, police officer -- were headed for Mexico, Glasgow said it appears the seven aren't intent on leaving Texas but no one could be certain.
Police: Gang may not leave Texas
"I don't have any idea what these guys are doing. None of us really do. It's pretty clear it doesn't look like they are leaving the state," said Glasgow, noting that they escaped in South Texas, went north to the Dallas area and now appeared to be back in the south. "I don't have any explanation why they are going the way they are."
All seven convicts -- two killers, two armed robbers, a child abuser, a serial rapist and a burglar -- are being sought on capital murder charges for the police officer's slaying.
Glasgow said he doubted the escapees still resemble their mug shots, which were distributed widely after their escape on December 13 from the John B. Connally Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Kenedy, Texas. Most likely, Glasgow said, they now have longer hair, beards or mustaches.
At an Irving, Texas, news conference Friday morning, Irving police spokesman David Tull released a set of police drawings aimed at illustrating any changes in the convicts' weight or hairstyle since their escape.
In the three weeks since they broke out of prison with a cache of weapons and left a note warning, "You haven't heard the last of us yet," the convicts are suspected of pulling off at least two robberies and killing a police officer.
Tull said there was a possibility that two of the escapees had been injured during the robbery of a sporting goods store on December 24.
At that robbery, Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins was shot to death. Tull said that blood samples found near the scene of the crime indicated that two people, in addition to Hawkins, had suffered gunshot injuries during the robbery. Officials said the gang has amassed an arsenal of more than 40 weapons stolen during the prison break and at the robbery.
An autopsy report released Wednesday showed Hawkins suffered 11 gunshot wounds and was run over by a vehicle after he responded to the sporting goods store robbery.
George Rivas and Michael Rodriguez were identified as prison escapees by witnesses at a Bank of America in San Marcos, Texas
Suspects spotted at bank
San Marcos Police Chief Steve Griffith said Thursday that George Rivas and Michael Rodriguez were the two escapees identified at the bank.
Police were called to the bank Thursday afternoon after a clerk reported a man who wanted to open a new account was acting odd, the chief said. The clerk told officers the man made bank employees nervous, so the clerk called authorities.
Griffith said he showed witnesses some additional photographs of the escapees and was "able to confirm that two of the individuals ... two of the escapees were at (the) bank."
The pictures were shown to a bank teller and another witness, who positively identified them as escaped prisoners.
A witness outside the bank saw seven or eight people standing around three cars in the parking lot and said the man inside the bank was with these people. They all got into the three cars and headed out of the downtown area toward Interstate 35, the statement said.
That highway, when taken south, leads to San Antonio, Texas, and goes to Dallas-Fort Worth if taken north.
Lt. Ben Valdez, right, with the Texas Department of Public Safety, looks over reports with a colleague in Garland, Texas, on Thursday
Manhunt spreads across Southwest
Prison officials said the search has spread across the Southwest, but is concentrated in the Dallas area. Larry Todd, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said all seven are still believed to be together.
Todd said they apparently have not tried to contact any close friends or relatives, but he added: "Someone is obviously helping them. They have the money and assistance to stay hidden."
That the seven appeared to be running as a gang and instead of splitting up has led to suspicions they may be planning a showdown. "It leads everyone to think these guys have a plan," said FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey.
Federal charges
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in San Antonio charged the men with weapons violations Wednesday, signaling a broadening federal role in the three-week-old manhunt, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
FBI agents in the Dallas area planned to file separate federal charges of unlawful flight from federal prosecution. The unlawful-flight charges would "make it a nationwide manhunt rather than a state and local manhunt," Bailey said.
Posters of the seven escaped convicts are handed out Tuesday in Irving, Texas
Authorities issued a special phone number for tips regarding the escapees: 1-800-252-TIPS (8477). A tipster call to police in Canon City, Colorado, on Thursday has not been confirmed by police. The caller said the escapees were in a red Ford panel van.
The convicts involved in the prison escape were identified as:
? Joseph Garcia, 29, who was serving 50 years for murder in San Antonio.
? Randy Halprin, 23, who was serving 30 years for child abuse in Fort Worth.
? Larry Harper, 37, who was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault after raping three women in 1993 and 1994 in El Paso.
? Patrick Murphy, Jr., 39, who was serving 50 years for aggravated sexual assault with a deadly weapon and burglary in Dallas.
? Donald Newbury, 38, who was serving 99 years for aggravated robbery at an Austin hotel in 1997.
? Rivas, 30, who was serving 99 years for aggravated kidnapping and burglary in El Paso. In 1993 he robbed an Oshman's in El Paso and was arrested while robbing a Toys "R" Us store in the same city, said El Paso police.
? Rodriguez, 38, who was serving a life prison term for capital murder in San Antonio after being convicted of paying another man $2,000 to kill his wife so that he could collect $150,000 in life insurance.
**Jerks like these make me want to put them in jail and throw away the key!!! They killed a cop on Christmas Eve
My heart goes out to those cops, their families, as well as to the cop who died. 
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